Saturday trip

On Saturday evenings I teach an English class to a very interesting and fun group of people. Last month we made plans to go to Universal Studios on the 13th to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere. Everyone else has been there before and two students even have season passes. I was excited to go for the first time!

The word of the day, according to Mrs. Fujiwara, was 忍耐, patience. I would have to agree!

We arrived at the entrance of the parking lot about 4PM, our planned arrival time. However, the parking lot was full. So, we went to another parking lot nearby-line of cars around the corner waiting to get in. Okay, how about the one by the station. Same situation. Well, let's just go down the train line to the next train station! Yes, there is a parking lot and only three cars were waiting to get in. It is now 4:20PM. At 4:50 the first car in line finally gets into the parking lot. Finally, at 5:20, an hour after getting into line, we get into the parking lot!

We take the train back one stop to the park and finally get in around 5:30PM. By this time everyone is hungry so we are about to head to a restaurant when we realize they are just lighting the Christmas tree. There is supposed to be a neat show beforehand, however, we missed it. It's okay, I saw parts of it on TV last week.

Finally, we start off walking through the park to a restaurant. The couple who have season passes have a restaurant they like so we follow after them to the other side of the park. We get there and the restaurant is closed! Okay, choose another restaurant. We end up at a Japanese restaurant-which has a line and at least 20 minute wait.

Finally, we get a table-for six on a busy Saturday night in December! The highlight of the meal was the fun drinks we ordered with blinking ice cubes! Naohiro, the engineer, took it out and figured out how it worked-we women just enjoyed the wonder of flashing drinks.

(Can't see the blinking light so well in the picture:)

There was a special at the restaurant to get an express pass for one ride and a dessert so we got that. Finally, at 7:30 made it to the Jurassic Park ride. Since it is a water ride and it is winter we bought the over-priced plastic bag to put over our coats so that we wouldn't get wet. The ride was fun-the drop at the end was way better than I'd expected.

Two ladies didn't ride so we spent the next 15 minutes trying to find them-I was mostly watching the Peter Pan show while others were looking. By now the roller coaster was closed. But, the shops were still open-and overflowing! So, for the last 45 minutes at the park we walked through shops. Fortunately, we did not try to stick together!

My first trip to USJ has left me wanting to go back for more. One gal said to me several times that we will need to go back for a whole day in the spring so we can go on more rides and see more shows and really enjoy ourselves-I agree!


Mrs. Fujiwara (the one who wanted to eat at the Japanese restaurant), Atsumi (the one with the season pass), and Chika (the gal who wants to go back)